At @zoe-institute.bsky.social, we’ve been exploring how Sustainable & Inclusive Wellbeing (SIW) can act as a lens for assessing policy, and how SIW indicators can guide us towards better results. I’ll be sharing insights, learnings, and challenges from our EU-level work 🔎

A focus on these priorities should lead to a more nuanced and effective approach to measuring and addressing social norms in the pursuit of gender equality.

Full paper is available here: www.alignplatform.org/resources/me...

We propose two clusters of priorities:

- Improving the internal consistency of measures
- Incorporating emerging best practices through long-term, participatory approaches that capture gender equality outcomes and address institutional dimensions of social norm change

These shortcomings limit the effectiveness of norms-based work in improving gender equality outcomes. The paper concludes by outlining components of a future framework for measuring social norms and gender equality, suggesting what should be measured, why, how, and by whom.

The paper identifies four cross-cutting shortcomings:

1. Inconsistencies in definitions and measures of social norms
2. Unclear causal pathways
3. Poorly evidenced or conceptually under-justified recommendations
4. Failure to consider collective agency and contentious politics

Beginning with the premise that measurement is not a neutral or power-free process, the paper reviews seven key examples of how social norms are being measured to achieve gender equality, including studies by the OECD, UNDP, World Bank, and UN Women, among others.